CHRONICLES OF BUDTHUhttp://www.balaprasad.com
Professor Prasad's BlogSun, 22 Oct 2017 06:41:00 +0000en-UShourly1Balaprasadhttps://feedburner.google.comHidden Figures – Based on true storyhttp://www.balaprasad.com/hidden-figures-based-true-story/
Sun, 22 Oct 2017 06:41:00 +0000http://www.balaprasad.com/?p=297 Deepawali week end special!!! Based on a true story about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, NASA engineer.(Ref:wiki page on it ) […]

Based on a true story about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, NASA engineer.(Ref:wiki page on it )

]]>Sapiens – YUVAL NOAH HARARI (A must read for all)http://www.balaprasad.com/sapiens-yuval-noah-harari-must-read-read/
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 04:47:43 +0000http://www.balaprasad.com/?p=289100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust […]

100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?

]]>“Together is better than one”http://www.balaprasad.com/together-better-one/
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 04:53:17 +0000http://www.balaprasad.com/?p=279 “The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark. For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould. Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering? And shall it be said that my eve was […]

For to stay, though the hours burn in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould.

Shall the day of parting be the day of gathering?

And shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn?

And the elders of the city stood forth and said:

Go not yet away from us.

A noontide have you been in our twilight, and your youth has given us dreams to dream.

No stranger are you among us, nor a guest, but our son and our dearly beloved.

Suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face.

Let not the waves of the sea separate us now, and the years you have spent in our midst become a memory.

You have walked among us a spirit, and your shadow has been a light upon our facs.

Much have we loved you. But speechless was our love, and with veils has it been veiled.

Yet now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you.

And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

And now your ship has come, and you must needs go.

Deep is your longing for the land of your memories and the dwelling place of your greater desires; and our love would not bind you nor our needs hold you.

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Even while the earth sleeps we travel. We are the seeds of the tenacious plant, and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered.”

― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Farewell message
“Life is a series of choices. Do we go left or right? Jump forward or hold back?

Sometimes our choices work out for the better…and sometimes they don’t. But there is one choice, regardless of every other decision, that profoundly affects how we feel about our journey: Do we go alone or do we go together?

It is the courageous few who ask for help. It is the giving few willing to help others. We can all find the courage we need and know the joy of service – the minute we learn that together is better.”Simon Sinek

]]>Am I a patriot ??http://www.balaprasad.com/am-i-a-patriot/
Tue, 05 Apr 2016 15:40:48 +0000http://www.balaprasad.com/?p=253 (Do not call me unpatriotic .I believe in India where there is not caste creed discrimination,no parochialism,which is inclusiveand secular and democratic- not the sham democracy we have today) My vision “Humans are divided into different clans and tribes, and belong to countries and towns. But I find myself a stranger to all communities […]

(Do not call me unpatriotic .I believe in India where there is not caste creed discrimination,no parochialism,which is inclusiveand secular and democratic- not the sham democracy we have today)

My vision

“Humans are divided into different clans and tribes, and belong to countries and towns. But I find myself a stranger to all communities and belong to no settlement. The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe.
I love my native village with some of my love for my country; and I love my country with part of my love for the earth, all of which is my country; and I love the earth will all of myself because it is the haven of humanity, the manifest spirit of God.
I sing the praise of my birthplace and long to see the home of my children; but if the people in that home refused to shelter and feed the needy wayfarer, I would convert my praise into anger and my longing to forgetfulness”.KHALIL GIBRAN

In the following speech of Tharoor at JNU he has well articulated my vision of india watch it here

]]>FROM THE PAST……..(may be relevant even now!!)http://www.balaprasad.com/from-the-past-may-be-relevant-even-now/
Sun, 01 Nov 2015 04:31:11 +0000http://www.balaprasad.com/?p=235I do not know why I remembered this incident all of a sudden. It happened many many years back (much before I became public ) . Anyway I thought it is worth penning it, if not at least for the fun sake. On a visit to my hometown my dad asked me to accompany him […]

I do not know why I remembered this incident all of a sudden. It happened many many years back (much before I became public ) . Anyway I thought it is worth penning it, if not at least for the fun sake.

On a visit to my hometown my dad asked me to accompany him for a convocation function at his friend’s Hindi college (of course it is not a mega event) but for me it was between devil and deep sea situation. I was too scared to stand before a small gathering and utter something sensible. I was too scared to say no to my dad. In our family most of the time his dictates run. I really didn’t have much of a choice, I opted for the former rather than annoying dad (he himself was a great orator and a professional speaker and I stood nowhere in his oratory skills) . I was on the look out for something to say , so I picked up one of the stories from ‘the prayer of the frog’ The story goes like this – there was a master with a dog .Somewhere the master heard that code liver oil is very good for dog’s health, so he brought it and with a great effort he started giving it to his dog. The poor dog was struggling and the whole scene was really pathetic. This ritual continued for many days (many of our infants undergo the same treatment during the first years of their life).One day after the ritual was over the master left the spoon accidentally near the dog. To his great surprise he noticed that the dog was licking the spoon and enjoying the code liver oil which the master thought that the dog loathes. It was quite revealing , it was not the oil that the dog loathed it was the method of administering it .It is a very important lesson for all teachers , very often in our keenness to ‘administer’ knowledge/education we follow the technique the master used and get frustrated .We need to think into the method of ‘administering’ the so called education.(As I was addressing a group of students who were supposed to be taking up the profession of teaching I thought that the story was relevant). I stammered through the story and dad as in the classic story of kalidasa did the rest.

]]>Bertrand Russell’s Ten Commandments of Teachinghttp://www.balaprasad.com/bertrand-russells-ten-commandments-of-teaching/
Wed, 07 Oct 2015 15:57:42 +0000http://www.balaprasad.com/?p=224Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor […]

Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
(originally appeared in the December 16, 1951, issue of The New York Times Magazine titled“The Best Answer to Fanaticism – Liberalism” )

]]>Quantum Indians-Story of three modern indian scientistshttp://www.balaprasad.com/quantum-indians-story-of-three-modern-indian-scientists/
Tue, 18 Aug 2015 15:14:31 +0000http://www.balaprasad.com/?p=160Dr. Satyendra Nath Bose devised a statistical theory of counting photons – a revelation even to Albert Einstein — that paved the way for the two great minds to work in tandem in formulating fundamental theories as the Bose-Einstein Statistics and Bose-Einstein Condensate. Boson, the class of particles that obey Bose-Einstein statistics, was named after […]

Dr. Satyendra Nath Bose devised a statistical theory of counting photons – a revelation even to Albert Einstein — that paved the way for the two great minds to work in tandem in formulating fundamental theories as the Bose-Einstein Statistics and Bose-Einstein Condensate. Boson, the class of particles that obey Bose-Einstein statistics, was named after Dr. S. N. Bose. Sir C. V. Raman gave the world what is known as the Raman effect, which redefined how we see light and colour. Another contemporary, Dr. Meghnad Saha produced an equation that explained stellar radiation and is regarded as one of the fathers of modern astrophysics. All the three scientists started their careers at the Calcutta University, became Fellows of the Royal Society, and Raman was the first and only Indian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for physics.

The film is a tribute to the three exemplary minds, the significance of whose contributions was of vital importance during that time, and even today with great strides being made in quantum physics, fibre optics, nuclear science or astrophysics. They were not only great scientists, but were rooted to the social and political realities of the time and dedicated their lives to modern science in India. Along with being institutions by themselves, they built stellar institutions in the country that inspired many great scientists of the following generations.